The summer has swiftly moved along far more we would all like, but we would like to take this time to share some of the things God has been stirring in our hearts, and the direction we feel he’s asking us to go.
Darryl and I have been on a journey of refining our businesses the last few years. In particular, Darryl and I have quite honestly been really hard and impatient with ourselves. It’s taken us years to figure out that we while we are passionate about helping people through the creative services that we offer to our customers, we feel there’s more God is asking of us. We have two small businesses doing (X) and we find ourselves doing (Y) more often.
We have spent the last few years volunteering a lot of our time to various ministries so they can thrive, by supporting them through design, websites, photography, and we will continue to do that as long as we are asked. This is the (Y) I spoke of earlier, but we need financial support to help us to to continue to do this. When we help others thrive in the area of their mission we get really excited, but we want to commitment a large portion of our week to helping without the financial strain from being away from our part time businesses. Not to mention, volunteering without pay doesn’t put food in our kiddos mouths. 🙂 But we continue to trust in God’s timing while it is honestly so hard.
So what are we working now?
1. We are actively working on finding a Canadian agency that can help us in the role of issuing tax receipts for donors. We’ve experienced generous hearts towards our volunteer work, and we thank you again. Once we find the right one, we hit the pavement oh to speak and the real work begins.
2. We are going to back to the basics: Last week we sat down, with no distractions, and no kids in the house (thanks to those who took our kids for a few days), to start to write out our purpose, our values, and our missions statement. This is extremely tough to do, and we would love your prayers as we work through this. Sort of like wearing high heels in Deep mud. 🙂
3. We are still in the process of inviting families to vacation in Mazatlan, while being able to partner and experience a bit of what makes The Vineyard tick. This is a soft landing to showing adults, and kids how they can help in another country. If you are at all interested in seeing Mazatlan, or learning a little bit more about The Vineyard Church, we’d love to grab a coffee with you.
4. We need guidance, patience, and support in this great task in front of us. I’m asking for prayer to bring the right people into our lives that can help bring Gods plans to reality.
5. Our calendars are really full and bursting at the seams. Please prayer for items to get done, and patience as we push through our long list of commitments and items.
Thanks for your support, you have no idea how grateful we are for each one of you that walks along side of us.
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.
Colossians 3:1-2 NLT
Love, Darryl, Jodi, Emily and Ben.
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